In order to prevent counterfeiting of passports, various cards, certificates, various products, and the like, techniques of coating a special ink on a surface of an article have been known, and techniques of applying a hologram on a surface of an article have been known. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 11-042875 has disclosed an anticounterfeiting technique using a cholesteric liquid crystal with a hologram. In this technique, a cholesteric liquid crystal and a hologram are combined, and a reflection light therefrom is observed via a left circular polarization filter and a right circular polarization filter, so that the authenticity can be determined. Specifically, when the hologram can be observed via the right circular polarization filter, the hologram cannot be observed via the left circular polarization filter. The authenticity of the article can be determined by using this phenomenon.
However, in the above technique, since only the hologram can have information (logo, production lot, and the like), the information amount may be a little. Since a block used for hologram production is expensive, the technique may not be suitable for small-scale production, and change of figure may require high cost.